OpenTV And TVN Ink Deal to Enable the Delivery of Interactive TV to U.S. Cable Industry; Agreement Paves Way for Cable Operators to Offer New iTV Content and Services

Business Wire, Nov 28, 2001

Business Editors, High-Tech Writers

The Western Show 2001

ANAHEIM, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 28, 2001

OpenTV (NASDAQ and Euronext Amsterdam: OPTV), the world's leading interactive television company, and TVN Entertainment Corporation, a leading digital content licensing, programming, distribution, and management company, today announced an agreement that allows for the provision of OpenTV-enabled interactive services to North American cable operators over TVN's digital satellite platform.

"OpenTV's agreement with TVN provides us with an opportunity to leverage a broad and efficient satellite solution for the North American cable market," said OpenTV CEO James Ackerman. "We believe that TVN's satellite distribution network, which delivers movie, sports and advertising content to over 60 million CATV subscribers, is able to give OpenTV great market reach and freedom to program an iTV solution that will enable a large portion of the U.S. cable market to accelerate the deployment of iTV services to their viewers. Our proven iTV middleware solution, compelling content and extensive support capability makes OpenTV a natural `one stop shop' for interactive television services for system operators."

Working with TVN and the world's leading iTV content providers, OpenTV will be able to deliver a suite of interactive television services including the very popular PlayJam games channel and a "Starter Kit" of iTV services including real-time news, local weather, stock quotes, and entertainment services. OpenTV's technology enables the delivery of broadcast, transactional, and local interactive services to cable systems in a manner that is easy to implement, highly scalable and cost effective.

"This relationship creates an opportunity to pool the resources and know-how OpenTV has collected from their experience around the world in deploying interactive television with satellite and cable operators, with the experience TVN has gathered over the last ten years in developing a leading digital content delivery platform that supports various interactive TV solutions, including pay-per-view, VOD and direct response television content," said TVN CEO Ian Aaron. "We view our relationship with OpenTV as a very strategic step as we begin to enhance our 40 channels of entertainment and advertising programming that we currently deliver to our affiliates with new interactive capabilities."

"We are committed to bringing the best television experience possible to our customers, and interactivity will quickly become a necessary part of that experience," said Mark Niblick, President and COO of Midcontinent Cable, the programming provider of choice for over 250,000 subscribers. "We look forward to seeing the OpenTV solution, and we feel that it will provide our customers the destination eyeball candy that keeps them entertained and informed. We believe that an OpenTV / TVN alliance will provide MSOs with a distinct value proposition, as iTV will prove to be a critical competitive advantage for cable operators."

About OpenTV

OpenTV is the world's leading interactive television company. It provides a broad range of interactive TV solutions including operating middleware, content applications, content creation tools, professional support services and strategic consulting. OpenTV's software operates on all digital platforms, from thin to thick set top boxes, including PVR systems and supports a number of standards including HTML, DOCSIS, MHP and Java.

OpenTV's middleware is deployed in more than 20 million digital set-top boxes worldwide and has been selected by 49 digital cable, satellite and terrestrial communications networks in more than 50 countries. 36 digital set-top box manufacturers have licensed OpenTV's software, and more than 1,300 content developers have joined its Partner Program. Customers include BSkyB in the United Kingdom (NYSE: BSY); TPS and Noos in France (Paris: LYOE.PA); NTL Cable in Switzerland and France (NYSE: NLI; NASDAQ Europe: NTLI); Via Digital in Spain (NYSE: TEF); DIRECTV(TM) Latin America LLC (NYSE: GMH); Shanghai Cable in China; Jupiter Telecommunications in Japan; EchoStar's DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH) and USA Media in the U.S.

The company's wholly owned subsidiary, Static2358, is the industry's leading interactive applications provider. It owns and operates the world's most successful iTV entertainment and games channel, PlayJam.

OpenTV is based in Mountain View, California. For more information please visit www.opentv.com.

About TVN

TVN, a leading digital content aggregator, programmer, distributor and asset management company, currently serves more than 600 cable systems reaching over 60 million U.S. households. The company has more than ten years of experience in the licensing, programming and secure delivery of professional grade video and audio content, including movies, sports, special event pay-per-view programming, broadcast and network fare, infomercials and advertising. TVN's Digital Content Express is a comprehensive suite of services for NVOD and VOD programming, equipped to encode, archive, transport and manage professional grade video and other content via satellite and fiber across all last-mile distribution technologies, worldwide. Please visit our website at www.tvn.com.